Port in a Storm

This season overall really pleased me and I enjoyed it more than season 1, honestly. I think this season's focus institutionally with the docks and personally with the people affected by the docks is stronger than in S1. I think what amens this show intriguing is that it isn't grabbing your attention like others, it relies on you to pay attention, giving you that beautiful payoff like in last episode's "Bad Dreams," that final shot. And this episode again delivers that amazing payoff. We see the deprecated port industry and we see that again, institutionally, nothing has changed, but personally, the damage has been done. Those final last minutes and final shot really are enthralling for what this season put up.

The Wire S2: 9/10.

Overall a pretty good season. The port setting and Greek connection was interesting and most importantly easy to follow. I watched this whole season quickly because it was quite enjoyable. This was far better than season 1 which was lackluster.

One of the biggest things to me was this had initially started because Valchek, an old and arrogant official, wanted to settle a score with Frank Sobotka. One has to consider that illegal activity and hustling happens every day, it is only because of revenge and allocating so much police resource to an area that it exposed so much. Would Bunk and Freamon been able to solve the 14 girl murder with no resourcing or detail? They likely wouldn't have got far enough.

Strong 7 out of 10.

Greetings from Lithuania.

I highly enjoyed the finale of The Wire seasons 2, called Port in a Storm. It was indeed a storm in a port, and liked the story of how things ended. And while technicaly they did not end, i found it to be a great finale of a great season. This season brought a character, new and old ones which i will never foget. I liked the pacing and writing of this particular episode the most - at its running time 1 hours it felt like a 10 minutes episode - it was that good. And yet if had to give some criticism to this episode and series overall it would be somehow inconsistent editing. It kinda works and not because some scenes are lasting like second or two and it cuts to another scene. But this is minor complaint to a series that i would call brilliant in every possible way.

We see the fallout from Frank's meeting with the Greeks.

'Port In A Storm' is a profound conclusion to the second season with a number of memorable scenes.

As a finale it nicely summarises the season (and show) themes, wraps up a number character arcs, and lays more foundation for what comes next. How the plot unfolds is compelling, tragic and full of insightful observations about the decline of a working class community, the ever present vice culture, and both government and capitalist systems that perpetuate it.

The opening scene is a brilliant piece of visual storytelling and the cinematographers, editor and director deserve a lot of credit for this sequence and many other visuals in the episode.

There are many great scenes involving all characters, but my favourites involve Louis and Nick Sabotka, Stringer's exchanges with both Avon and Brother Mouzone, and everything involving Stan Valchek. I will mention no details to avoid spoilers.

It ends with a typically brilliant montage sequence I associate with the great HBO television shows.

For me Pablo Schreiber gives his best performance of the season and as always, everyone else is on great form.